


sun in your eyes

by hoodedmiho (missMHO)



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Amnesia, Established Relationship, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Secret Relationship, The Flash 3x21
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-25
Updated: 2017-06-25
Packaged: 2018-11-19 01:23:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11302836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missMHO/pseuds/hoodedmiho
Summary: “Who are they?” Barry asks with pure curiosity and before Iris can answer he adds. “They weren’t in the photos. Do we know them? The blond one is hot.”“Yeah, we do know each other but the two of us already went down that road and it didn’t work,” Felicity finally answers, making a weird movement with her hands that Oliver thinks was supposed to indicate that they tried to be together and it failed.“Oh,” Barry laughs. “You’re a beautiful woman but I meant the grumpy one.”





	sun in your eyes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [anythingbutplatonic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/anythingbutplatonic/gifts).



> This is my submission for [DC CW Rarepair Swap](https://dccwrarepairswap.tumblr.com/) for [anythingbutplatonic](http://archiveofourown.org/users/anythingbutplatonic). The prompt I got was "Olivarry: Hurt/comfort, preferably something from canon as an extended scene/deleted scene". I hope you'll enjoy it! :)
> 
> Special thanks to [thekasialin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thekasialin) and [kasssumi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kasssumi) who took a look at it to check whether it's not a total disaster. I'm not a native speaker of English so I apologise for any mistakes!
> 
>  
> 
> **Fic takes place during Flash 3x21 so beware of spoilers if you hadn't seen it yet. Timeline is changed a little bit with _Arrow_ 5x21 (events from the episode are mentioned) happening before _Flash_ 3x21.**

After Oliver’s team finally got a bit of a break with Chase securely locked away at ARGUS, they decided to visit Central City. Team Flash asked them for help some time ago, they hoped that with a new perspective Team Arrow might see some solution they’ve been missing so far. Then Caitilin went rogue and they still didn’t have a set plan to save Iris… Team Arrow had their own crises to deal with but without Prometheus wreaking havoc, nothing really stopped them from offering their services to the Central City team. They had enough people to split between guarding Star City and supporting their friends.

Oliver, Dig and Felicity were just exiting the plane in Central City when they got a call from Cisco.

“Guys, before you get here, I need to warn you that there’s a new situation…” he said, obviously distressed. “We really messed up.”

ж

Cisco didn’t tell them much - just that they messed with Barry’s memory and that he really must go back to working on fixing it _now_. So when they enter the Cortex, they’re really not sure what to expect.

Oliver’s not ready for the sight of Barry smiling like a kid who just got a puppy for Christmas - he is so taken aback that he physically stops in his tracks. He hasn’t seen Barry smile so openly… ever. Barry was always a ray of light and hope but this is _different_.

“Who are they?” he asks with pure curiosity and before Iris can answer he adds. “They weren’t in the photos. Do we know them? The blond one is hot.”

Dig lets out a bit of a hysterical laugh. Oliver is still frozen, too overwhelmed by the situation. Barry is looking straight at him now and seeing the speedster like this, so innocent, so purely happy - it makes something within Oliver ache with longing while simultaneously making him want to flee.

“Yeah, we do know each other but the two of us already went down that road and it didn’t work,” Felicity finally answers, making a weird movement with her hands that Oliver thinks was supposed to indicate that they tried to be together and it failed.

“Oh,” Barry laughs. “You’re a beautiful woman but I meant the grumpy one.”

Oliver feels all eyes in the room stop on him. He clears his throat.

“Iris, can we have a word?” he asks while already turning towards the exit. Iris nods and walks to join him. The last thing Oliver sees before leaving the room is the confused, almost hurt, look on Barry’s face. He curses himself internally.

Oliver keeps quiet as they walk. They enter the first empty room they come across and only then he looks Iris into her eyes again.

“What happened?”

Iris sighs. “You know about Savitar’s identity?”

Oliver grinds his teeth. _Oh, he knows_. Barry has recently visited him in Star City, shaken and helpless. He told him all - more than he had told his team.

They weren’t supposed to mess with time any more than they already did and at first Barry didn’t want to tell him _everything_. But Oliver could see there was something else distressing the speedster, something even more than Iris’ fate and Savitar’s identity. Then he finally broke.

Since Savitar is still partially Barry, he knows something about him that no one else does: he knows that Barry and Oliver are together… A fact they managed to hide from everyone - out of necessity. They were ready to come out but then Prometheus’ vendetta became too personal and they had to stay hidden for Barry’s protection. He had enough of his own problems without another psychopath on his tail.

During their meeting, Savitar tormented Barry with new reveals about the future. He told him that Prometheus will win, that he will break Oliver and the archer will disappear, leave everything behind without a word of explanation or a goodbye. And then Iris will die the very next day.

The archer takes a deep breath at the memory of Barry’s anguish that evening. Oliver remembers how Barry was shaking in his embrace when he kissed him. He remembers how he held the speedster, repeating that he won’t ever leave like that, no matter what Prometheus does next - he said it so many times he started to believe it himself.

“Yes, I know about Savitar” he finally says out loud.

“Since he is a part of Barry, we came up with the idea of disabling Barry’s short memory. If he was unable to remember what we plan to do next, Savitar won’t know it as well.”

“But it backfired,” Oliver says, trying his best to hide the anger in his voice.

“It backfired,” she admits, resigned. “Cisco and Julian are working on fixing it but without Caitlin… She was the expert on these things.”

“Does he remember _anything?_ ”

Iris shakes her head. “From what we observed up until now, he’s a blank page. He didn’t even know his own name. He told us to call him _Bart_.”

Oliver takes a deep breath. He wouldn’t mind punching somebody right now.

When they get back to the Cortex, Dig and Joe are talking on the side while Felicity is chatting with Barry. Barry is smiling like a child again - up until he notices Oliver entering. Then his face falls and he looks like a kicked puppy again.

Oliver catches Felicity’s eye and nods at her. They know each other well enough for this gesture to be enough to communicate his intentions.

“Iris, will you take me to Cisco? Maybe I’ll be able to help,” Felicity gets up from the chair she was sitting on next to the speedster.

“Sure.”

When both women are out of the room, Oliver approaches Barry and takes the seat vacated by Felicity.

“I’m sorry about earlier, I didn’t mean to be--”

Oliver stops Barry mid-sentence with a wave of his hand.

“ _I am_ the one who’s sorry, I don’t deal well with surprises these days,” he huffs out a short laugh.

“I called you grumpy,” Barry winces.

“You always had an adorably clumsy way of flirting,” Oliver says before he can bite his tongue.

Barry’s eyes lit up. “So I _have_ flirted with you before?”

“Never said it was with me. Maybe I just was around.”

“But you don’t seem to be against me flirting with you right now,” Barry grins and Oliver’s chest aches again.

“Well, I don’t know, you don’t even know my name.”

Barry smiles even wider, triumphantly, “Oh, but I do, Oliver.”

Oliver sees his mistake. Barry has talked to Felicity before, she must have introduced them all.

“You usually call me _Ollie_ ” he adds before he can stop himself.

“Okay, Ollie. So how do we know each other?”

Oliver considers it for a bit but he is _always_ honest with Barry, no matter the situation and circumstances.

“You came to my city and saved my life,” he says finally, not adding that he saved him in so many more ways than just curing his poisoning. “We work together from time to time.”

“So you’re with the police, too? I don’t really see you as a CSI,” Barry frowns. Oliver has noticed the slight shock on his face after saving-the-life part but in the end the speedster didn’t ask to elaborate.

“Yeah, I am too dumb for a CSI.”

Barry frowns even harder but he just looks adorable now. “I don’t really believe that to be true.”

Oliver isn’t given a chance to reply as Joe’s phone goes off. Everyone’s attention shifts to him and after a short conversation, the detective looks straight at Barry.

“Barry’s needed at CCPD.”

ж

The court hearing is a disaster. Oliver shadows Barry all day since he can’t really help with the technical side of the problem and the Savitar issue has been temporarily put on hold. All he can do is just follow Barry and Joe and watch as they try not to ruin Barry’s career and prevent a criminal from walking free. They’re not too successful at that.

After they leave the court, Joe gets another phone call. All available officers are being mobilized since Coolidge is to be released so Oliver ends up on the babysitting duty with everyone else either working on fixing the speedster or doing their job. He doesn’t really mind, it’s just weird to have this amnesiac Barry around. They never had a problem with coming up with ideas how to spend time when it was just two of them but with the current situation, Oliver doesn’t feel too confident. This carefree Barry should be enjoying his day while he still can, before all his worries are restored, and the archer doesn’t feel like his “grumpy” self is the best companion for him. It doesn’t matter that he longs for every minute spent with Barry, the speedster deserves better.

They go to Barry’s flat and Oliver’s grateful that the speedster is too overwhelmed with everything to question why his friend from Star City has the key to his apartment. He orders take out without asking Barry what he wants since right now Oliver knows his favourites better than the man himself.

Barry walks around the flat, browsing through his own books and DVDs, looking for some kind of familiarity. Oliver can see the disappointment in his eyes as nothing jogs his memory. Oliver joins him, standing in front of Barry’s collection of chemistry books.

“So, I went through my phone earlier and I found a picture of us, together…” Barry starts, looking at his own hands as he strokes the spine of one of the thicker volumes. “I wouldn’t exactly call it explicit but we don’t look like we are just friends…”

“Barry--”

“We are something more, aren’t we?” the speedster finally looks up at him and Oliver can’t turn his eyes away.

“Yes.” He is always honest with Barry. “We are together, we’ve been for some time now. But nobody knows. We keep it a secret.”

Barry frowns. The hand moves up from touching the book, to cup Oliver’s cheek. The archer takes in a sharp breath.

“Why?”

“I lead a hazardous life. I never wanted to endanger you by us becoming even more closely involved but... you usually don’t listen to me and do what you think is better anyway. So I’m trying to protect you at least this way.”

Barry smirks and for a moment it feels _normal_ , as if it’s just one of the secret dates with his sassy genius impossible boyfriend.

“Would it be weird if I kissed you?”

Oliver hesitates for a moment but he falls victim to these green eyes again.

“We won’t know if we don’t try.”

It’s a bit like kissing Barry for the first time again, Oliver feels the same nervousness, the same excitement. It starts just with a brush of their lips but quickly becomes more, deepens…

Then Barry withdraws suddenly, confusion written all over him. One of his hands is vibrating at such a frequency that it’s barely visible.

Looks like he finally accessed his powers.

Next thing Oliver registers is Barry falling over his own couch. He runs to him, worried.

“Are you okay?” he kneels close to the speedster sprawled on the ground next to a broken lamp.

“What just happened?”

ж

Oliver manages to calm Barry down and vaguely explain how his powers work. The takeout arrives in the meantime and Barry downs it eagerly, the Speed Force making him hungry as always. Only then, with Barry calmed down a bit and fed, they come back to STAR Labs.

Joe picks them up and drives them there. On the way, Barry keeps talking about his powers excitedly. It’s still a bit weird and overwhelming to see him so full of joy. Especially since Oliver knows they must restore his memory, his worries and calamities.

An unexpected guest waits for them at STAR Labs. The moment Killer Frost appears in Oliver’s line of vision, he jumps in front of Barry, shielding him. Joe is already in front of her with his gun pointing at her chest. Frost raises her eyebrows at them, unamused.

“Joe, don’t, she’s here to help!” Cisco yells. Oliver and Joe look at him flabbergasted.

“Help? With what?” Joe is still keeping his gun up.

“With the fact that I lost my powers,” Wally speaks for the first time and the tension in the room dissolves a bit, turning into different kind of distress.

“Take Barry out of here,” Joe nods at Oliver but the archer is already dragging the speedster out of the Cortex. Barry manages to ask a question on his way out, though. All child-like, with his hand pointing at Killer Frost.

“Are you like a super villain?”

Oliver sighs. Frost looks even more unamused.

“Just asking,” Barry manages to yell in his own defence before Oliver leads him out of the room. Oliver is feeling the weirdest mixture of melting at Barry’s even increased adorableness and inner agony at his boyfriend’s lack of self-preservation.

ж

Of course Barry runs straight into danger despite having laughable control over his speed. That’s just who that lovable fool is.

Oliver tries to asses the situation with clear head. He could suit up but a quick look at the map tells him that before he could reach the fire, even with riding his bike at high speed, he won’t make it in time to help get people out of the building. He also doesn’t have any delusions about being able to stop Barry from running to aid people in danger, even in person and with physical force. Besides, they do need The Flash to help.

“How do I save everybody inside?”

It’s a miracle Barry didn’t hurt himself just getting there, how does he think he’s going to save these people?

“You just run them out of there,” is the only advice Cisco offers.

“I barely got here myself. How am I supposed to run with someone else?” Barry asks and he sounds helpless even through the com.

Reckless, self-sacrificing idiot.

Then Cisco electroshocks Barry. His screams chill Oliver’s blood in his veins.

“Uh, yeah, I still don't remember,” Barry says over the coms and the archer grinds his teeth. Maybe he should suit up after all...

“We kick-started his temporal lobe. Now he just needs to access it,” Frost explains calmly among the Team’s distress.

“Gas is in the tank, we just need to turn the ignition,” Cisco comments and this time Oliver is thankful for the metaphor. Being in Central City is, as always, confusing and headache inducing.

“We need a visceral memory to spark his brain,” Frost adds, expectantly.

Oliver looks around at Joe, Iris, even Cisco - they must have important memories with Barry, emotional enough that it would jog the speedster’s memory. But all he sees are anguished blank faces… They need to act or otherwise this idiot will really run right into the fire without full access to his powers and get himself killed.

The archer takes a step closer to the console.

“Barry, I need you to remember...” Oliver starts with tenderness in his voice that he allows to be heard only when there's just two of them. He momentarily feels eyes of everyone present focus on him. “After you came back from Flashpoint and realised the consequences, after you came back broken from failure of saving your parents and found no support here... you came to me. You ran to my flat in the middle of the night and started frantically, _desperately_ talking about what happened to you. You were a helpless mess. You were so wound up I couldn't get you to calm down, it was almost impossible for me to say a word, I couldn’t get through to you,” Oliver takes a deep breath and ignores the confused looks from Felicity, Dig, and Team Flash. He closes his eyes and recalls that moment. “I grabbed your shoulders and you finally looked at me and I-- I told you that I love you and you finally got out of that helpless trance and shutted up and I could finally tell you--”

“--that I'm only human and I'm allowed to make mistakes,” Barry finishes for him and Oliver lets out a relieved laugh, finally opening his eyes.

“Welcome back, Bar. Go be a hero.”

“Thank you, Ollie. I love you.”

Oliver sees the red streak on the screen disappear in the burning building. Then he hears the woosh of Wally speeding out the Cortex to help Barry and it reminds him that now he has his own crisis to tend to.

He looks at the shocked faces of all people gathered in the Cortex. Dig is giving him a knowing look - well, it is John Diggle, it makes sense he probably suspected. Oliver stops his gaze at Detective Joe when he finally speaks: “Ironically, we wanted to tell you all soon, now that it's safe with Chase locked up…”

He can see from Iris and Joe’s faces that he has a long talk ahead of him.

ж

Oliver would like to say he finally feels relaxed when they enter Barry’s flat late in the evening after all the talks with both Teams but that isn’t the case. Barry and him had no time alone to discuss what happened since the speedster’s memory returned and Oliver can’t help but feel like something has shifted. Barry, of course, notices.

“Okay, Mr Grumpy,” Barry takes Oliver’s hand and guides him to sit together on the couch. “What’s wrong? I can see it’s more than just the coming out.”

Barry still didn’t let go of the archer’s hand and Oliver squeezes it now, as if he was afraid to initiate more touch but wanted to feel more of the speedster next to him.

“It’s just, seeing you so purely happy today,” he finally starts, because he’s always honest with Barry. “It was wonderful but also... difficult.”

Barry stares at him for a moment.

“Are you doing the thing again when you think that your darkness is going to make my life more miserable than it already is and I won’t smile again,” he says, sounding almost sassy. Oliver is thankful for the tone because he doesn’t feel like he has enough mental capacity left today for another serious conversation.

“Yeah, I guess I am,” the archer admits.

Barry sighs but then he’s pulling Oliver closer so that they end up laying on the couch with the archer’s head on the other man’s chest, their legs tangled up. Barry strokes Oliver’s hair and he feels his eyes close at his boyfriend’s touch.

“You once told me that I’m your sunlight,” Barry muses, his hands continuing the caress. “But I don’t want you to think that you bring only tragic things into this relationship, Ollie. You experienced a bit more darkness in your life but you came out a good man. I admire that strength and I draw from it, especially recently with Flashpoint and Savitar…”

Oliver moves a bit to be able to look at Barry’s face.

“Thank you, I think I needed it today.”

“I know, Mr Grumpy.”

Oliver smiles and lifts himself to reach Barry’s lips with his own. The kiss is passionate but slow, long and full of delicate touches.

“I’m so glad you’re here, Ollie,” Barry confesses when they part and Oliver can see in his eyes the toll the recent events has taken on the speedster. He feels the ache in his heart as much as the physical pain still present in the wounds left by Chase. He strokes Barry’s cheek, drinking in the speedster’s presence.

“And I’m glad to be here.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on [tumblr](http://missmho.tumblr.com) and [twitter](https://twitter.com/hoodedmiho) if you want to fangirl over flarrow crossovers together ;>


End file.
